Two students for the University of Northwestern - St. Paul have launched a petition calling on the school to turn away from Critical Race Theory and other progressive ideologies, arguing that such theories run counter to the school&#39;s Christian foundation.Students at Northwestern St. Paul University Hayley Tschetter and Joshua Feland created a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/social-justice-an-open-letter-to-the-university-of-northwestern-st-paul?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_28343965_en-US%3A3&recruiter=1043843559&recruited_by_id=79a96500-5338-11ea-8ac3-1b4e77bcfa6f&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">change.org petition</a> warning the community about &quot;destructive&quot; concepts that are becoming commonplace in higher-education.&quot;Intentional or not, exchanging the biblical worldview and faithful Christian teaching for those worldviews rooted in anti-biblical ideologies such as Marxism, Postmodernism, Social Justice Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality leads down a destructive one-way road from which you cannot return.&quot;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17399" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Author of debunked 1619 Project to join UNC as &#39;Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism&#39;]</a>&quot;As students, it is our sincere and sober conviction that our beloved University is at a turning point,&quot; the petition begins. &quot;In light of recent events and controversies, both on and off our campus, we believe we are at a turning point that is perhaps more significant than any other in its history. &#39;<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px; color: rgb(54, 49, 53); font-family: "Change Calibre", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>As students, it is our sincere and sober conviction that our beloved University is at a turning point. In light of recent events and controversies, both on and off our campus, we believe we are at a turning point that is perhaps more significant than any other in its history.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px; color: rgb(54, 49, 53); font-family: "Change Calibre", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>The petition states that it is the Church&#39;s responsibility to &quot;correct falsehood.&quot;<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px; color: rgb(54, 49, 53); font-family: "Change Calibre", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>&ldquo;We look around at our nation and our world and see that these are dire times. Now, as [it] has always been, it is the Church&rsquo;s responsibility to defend the truth and correct falsehood (2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 3:15; Jude 3). As individual members of Jesus&rsquo; worldwide body, his bride, each of us live unified under one banner: preaching one Word, proclaiming one Gospel, serving one God (Eph. 4:1&ndash;6). We earnestly desire this blood-bought unity, and we will seek to preserve it, but we cannot do so at the cost of truth.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17309" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: New &lsquo;Civics Alliance&rsquo; aims to &lsquo;unite Americans in the effort to preserve civics education&rsquo;]</a>The petition lists examples and links of examples of the school&#39;s implementing of CRT, including mandatory implicit and racial bias training for staff, student leaders and others, affirmative action hiring practices, and changes to the core curriculum to include greater cultural competency.&ldquo;I have been gravely burdened by the trajectory I have seen my school going down,&#39;&#39; Hayley Tschetter said in an interview with&nbsp;Campus Reform. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a path similar to many Christian schools have taken before and it never ends well. My heart is hurting for those who are suffering and in pain, but I also believe that CRT deepens the racial divide rather than healing it. It was written out of a deep love for my school and for the students and faculty there, desiring them to remain firmly fixed upon the Gospel rather than turning to other ideologies. The letter took well over four months to write and formulate, so we tried to be as thorough as we could possibly be.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17315" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Investigation finds no evidence of FSU founding president&rsquo;s supposed racism. &#39;Anti-racists&#39; still want him canceled]</a>The President of University of Northwestern St. Paul President Cureton has responded to the petition in an email that was sent to the student body.&nbsp;The <a href="https://www.change.org/p/social-justice-an-open-letter-to-the-university-of-northwestern-st-paul/u/28885171" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">email</a> stated that he doesn&#39;t agree with the petition, but recognizes their right to express their view.&ldquo;So, while I do not agree with the characterizations and theories in the recent petition about the diversity and inclusion efforts at Northwestern, I also recognize each community member&rsquo;s right to freedom of speech and to expressions of beliefs and convictions.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17241" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Chico State president will lead university in &#39;antiracist&#39; journey after reading book by Critical Race Theorist]</a>&ldquo;I appreciate Dr. Cureton&#39;s statement regarding the freedom we have to express our views, however his dismissal of the ideas we presented was deeply discouraging,&rdquo; said Tschetter. &ldquo;We were hoping for more substance and a stronger stance taken against CRT within a response to our letter. Honestly the whole campus&#39; biggest question now is what does Dr. Cureton really think, because he was so non-committal in his response.&rdquo;The petition has so far garnered over 2,300 signatures&ldquo;I am more than a little surprised with how many signatures we&#39;ve received just in this short amount of time,&rdquo; said Josh Feland in an interview with Campus Reform. &ldquo;It&#39;s truly amazing how God has worked to spread this message completely organically.&quot;&quot;No huge news sites or commentators with large followings have picked up the story; it&#39;s all been spread by word of mouth,&#39; Feland added.The University of Northwestern St. Paul has not responded for comment.

The university president responded by saying he does "not agree" with the petition's allegations.

Students at Christian university call on school to turn away from 'falsehood' that is Critical Race Theory

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are some of the least effective members of Congress, according to a new <a href="https://thelawmakers.org/find-representatives#/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study</a> by researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.&nbsp;The researchers, who <a href="https://thelawmakers.org/methodology" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">generated</a> their data using computers and basing their scores on 15 criteria, say the proof is in the math.&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17361" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: OPINION: Say it loudly&mdash;&#39;I am not a racist.&#39;]</a>Their equations factored how many of a congressman&rsquo;s bills pass committee, make it to the other house, and eventually become law. They established a benchmark score of 1.5 and above as &ldquo;Exceptional&rdquo; and scores of .50 and below as &ldquo;Below Expectations.&rdquo;Among the lowest scoring House Democrats were Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (0.209) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (0.058).<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16947" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Teaching assistant docks point on conservative student&#39;s Black Panther essay: &lsquo;White people cannot experience racism&rsquo;]</a>They also identified several senators who were ineffective, with Sen. &nbsp;Bernie Sanders of Vermont scoring 0.136.&nbsp;The average score was 1.0.&nbsp;The highest scoring senators were Gary Peters (D-Mi.), Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and <a href="https://www.wicker.senate.gov/public/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Roger Wicker (R-Ms.)</a>, who scored 5.015, 3.589, and 3.558.&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17276" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: SUNY Geneseo announces new dorm &#39;for Students of Color&#39;]</a>Congressmen who practice bipartisanship are the most effect legislators, the study also said.&ldquo;Collectively, these results imply that engaging in bipartisan behaviors contributes to a virtuous cycle: those who cosponsor across party lines attract cross-party cosponsors to their own bills, which translates into greater legislative success for their agendas.&rdquo;And it found that regardless of political affiliations &ldquo;those who acquired degrees from elite educational institutions tend to be more liberal than others in their respective parties.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17147" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: LIBERAL ELITES? Profs more likely to have grown up &#39;socioeconomically privileged,&#39; study finds&#39;]</a>Rep. Rashida Talib &nbsp;had the highest score of the &quot;squad&quot; at 1.411, beating both <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Representatives Ilhan Omar (0.328) and&nbsp; Ayanna Pressley (0.670).&nbsp;Speaking to Campus Reform Vanderbilt University Professor Alan Wiseman, who helped to organize the study, said <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pact-Clinton-Gingrich-Rivalry-Generation/dp/0195322789" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bipartisanship</a> is still a path to becoming a successful lawmaker in Congress. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17324" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: VIDEO: Students CONDEMN BLM after they learn where their money is REALLY going]</a>Wiseman said that there is a &ldquo;very strong relationship between bipartisanship and lawmaking effectiveness for our top 10 Democratic House and Senate members holds.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Even in these politically challenging times,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;Bipartisanship appears to pay off for those who seek to advance their legislative initiatives.&rdquo;Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--red); font-weight: 600;" target="_blank">@ajmunguia23</a>

Report finds that bipartisan legislators are the most effective in both the house and senate.

University research finds AOC, Bernie Sanders highly ineffective

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) created a toolkit for helping citizens track legislation promoting civics education in their K-12 and postsecondary schools.The <a href="https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/tracking-american-civics-legislation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Civics Bill Tracker</a> is a project of the association&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/nas-announces-the-civics-alliance" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Civics Alliance</a>, a group of scholars and activists &ldquo;dedicated to defending and restoring true civics education across the United States.&rdquo; As of April 9, the National Association of Scholars is tracking four federal bills and 142 state bills as they move through the legislatures.&nbsp;Members of the public can access a <a href="https://www.nas.org/storage/app/media/New%20Documents/civics-proposed-bills-april-12-2021.xlsx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chart of the Bills spreadsheet</a> including each bill&rsquo;s goals, sponsors, and current status, as well as analysis from National Association of Scholars experts.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17195" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Marco Rubio targets Confucius Institutes with new bill]</a>For instance, NAS is tracking <a href="https://legiscan.com/NH/text/HB319/2021">House Bill 319</a> in New Hampshire, which would require university and community college students in the state&rsquo;s higher education system &ldquo;to pass the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services civics naturalization test.&rdquo; The bill is sponsored by six Republicans and one Democrat.&nbsp;<a href="https://legiscan.com/NJ/text/S2012/2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Senate Bill 2012</a> in New Jersey, which is sponsored by a lone Democrat, &ldquo;appropriates total of $160,000 from General Fund to Rutgers University-Camden and Rutgers University-Newark to establish Civic Leadership Summer Program.&rdquo;&nbsp;Campus Reform has reported on the advance of similar bills in Republican-dominated legislatures. Many exist to counter the historically dubious claims of the 1619 Project and the ideas of critical race theory and intersectionality.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17197" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Iowa bill targets colleges that teach New York Times&#39; &#39;racist&#39; and &#39;historically inaccurate&#39; 1619 Project]</a>National Association of Scholars Director of Research David Randall told Campus Reform that &ldquo;civics education is under serious threat from Action Civics, which would replace traditional civics education with thinly disguised community organization &mdash; progressive propaganda and vocational training in radical action.&rdquo;&ldquo;The information will allow citizens to get in touch with their own state representatives and convey informed opinion on the legislation under consideration,&rdquo; he added.Campus Reform reached out to the National Association of Scholars for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Civics education is under threat from "progressive propaganda and vocational training in radical action," said National Association of Scholars Director of Research David Randall.

Does your state have a bill to improve civics education?

Multiple universities are extending the deadline for dropping courses to the last day of classes.In a <a href="https://statements.cornell.edu/2021/20210413-students-supporting-student-mental-health.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter</a> to the student body, Cornell University announced that students may &ldquo;drop a course without&nbsp;a W through the last day of instruction&rdquo; on May 14. This policy applies to full-semester and half-semester classes.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17185" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Theology prof: &#39;Dear God, please help me to hate White people&#39;]</a>University officials attributed the change in policy to the recent death of a student and the &ldquo;intersecting stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including xenophobia, health disparities, national reckonings related to racial injustice, political upheaval, and economic downturn.&rdquo; &nbsp;&ldquo;We recognize the impact of these acute and cumulative stressors on one&rsquo;s body, mind, and emotions and that each of you are navigating them through your own ways of coping,&rdquo; wrote Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Lisa Nishii on April 13, &ldquo;While it is both normal and understandable to have difficulty managing academics when concentration, memory, and sleep are compromised, we also know that some of you rely on your academic pursuits to provide a sense of structure and predictability in these uncertain times.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17079" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: ASU dean writes book alleging that grading students&rsquo; writing is &#39;white supremacy&#39;]</a>The new grading policy was instituted to benefit students who feel &ldquo;overwhelmed, utterly exhausted, and need more space to process their emotions and grieve.&rdquo;Weeks earlier, the University of Illinois <a href="https://publish.illinois.edu/englishadvising/2021/02/11/spring-2021-academic-policy-changes-new-drop-deadline-and-covid-grades/#sthash.MXGWZXpm.dpbs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unveiled</a> a similar policy.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16874" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA, fourth best public college in US, lowers academic standards for two more years]</a>On Feb. 11, the school announced that the drop deadline would be extended to the last day of the class in question. If students drop a course by this deadline, it is &quot;erased from your official transcript.&quot;The University of Virginia, for example, <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16874" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extended</a> its test-optional admissions policy for two more years.Campus Reform reached out to Cornell University and the University of Illinois for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

These announcements come as leading universities across the United States trend toward relaxing their academic standards in response to COVID-19.

Ivy League university moves to allow students to drop classes on LAST DAY

A Johns Hopkins University medical professor said that closed schools are an &ldquo;American disgrace.&rdquo;Dr. <a href="https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/1565/martin-a-makary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marty Makary</a> &mdash; a professor at Johns Hopkins University&rsquo;s prestigious School of Medicine and a Fox News contributor &mdash; said during an interview with &ldquo;Coffee With Closers&rdquo; ripped public health officials&rsquo; response to the COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WgEiYVbTuRw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>During the interview, Makary explained his thinking on herd immunity and his correct prediction that the United States would see a slowing of COVID-19 infections by April of 2021.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re seeing is a divergence in the data right now. You&rsquo;re going to see two pandemics &mdash; one among at-risk people and the other is among young people who are healthy,&rdquo; he said. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17037"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17037" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Race-based COVID vaccine distribution is needed, profs say, because US is racist]</a>Makary also challenged Dr. Fauci&rsquo;s representation of herd immunity.&ldquo;When people say we need to vaccinate 70-85% of the population in order to reach herd immunity &mdash; which is a quote you&rsquo;ll hear again and again, especially coming from Dr. Fauci &mdash; that&rsquo;s not true,&rdquo; he remarked. &ldquo;Because half the country has natural immunity from prior infection. And some doctors &mdash; especially the old school doctors &mdash; have dismissed that.&rdquo;Makary was particularly critical of medical officials&rsquo; decisions to close schools and slammed groupthink in the medical community. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16952"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16952" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Students sue UT-Austin over COVID-era tuition]</a>&ldquo;Why do adults get their bowling alleys and restaurants, but kids are shut out of their livelihoods?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an American disgrace. And I think what we&rsquo;ve lost a little bit in the medical profession is to speak your mind. Too many people are worried about what folks are gonna think of you.&rdquo;Noting that self-harm claims among children have risen several hundred percent since the beginning of the pandemic, Makary said that &ldquo;from a medical standpoint, from a public health standpoint, kids need to be in school.&rdquo;Campus Reform recently reported that the editorial team of a student newspaper at Johns Hopkins retracted an article featuring a university study claiming that COVID-19 did not significantly increase the death rate in 2020. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16463"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16463" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Johns Hopkins newspaper removes study examining COVID death rate]</a>One editor said that the article was being used to spread &ldquo;dangerous inaccuracies&rdquo; online.Campus Reform reached out to Makary for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ben Zeisloft</a> on twitter.

He denounced officials’ decisions to close down schools and pointed out groupthink in the medical community.

Johns Hopkins doctor: Closed schools are an ‘American disgrace’

A Louisiana state lawmaker introduced a bill to ban schools from teaching the &ldquo;divisive concepts&rdquo; of critical race theory at state-funded schools.&nbsp;State Rep. Ray Garofalo (R-LA) filed the <a href="http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1211990" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legislation</a>, which addresses &ldquo;certain concepts related to race and sex in elementary and secondary schools and postsecondary education institutions,&quot; on April 2.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17195" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Marco Rubio targets Confucius Institutes with new bill]</a>The bill bans a litany of &ldquo;divisive concepts,&rdquo; including the notions that &ldquo;one race or sex is inherently superior or inferior to another race or sex,&rdquo; that &ldquo;an individual should be discriminated against, favored, or receive differential treatment solely or partly because of the individual&#39;s race or sex,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;an individual, by virtue of the individual&#39;s race or sex, bears responsibility or is to be held accountable for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.&rdquo;Furthermore, teachers are disallowed from teaching that meritocracy or capitalism inherently originate with any particular race or sex. Educators are not to state that &ldquo;the concepts of capitalism, free markets, or working for a private party in exchange for wages are racist and sexist or oppress a given race or sex.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17197" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Iowa bill targets colleges that teach New York Times&#39; &#39;racist&#39; and &#39;historically inaccurate&#39; 1619 Project]</a>The legislation would also stop teachers from alleging that &ldquo;either the United States of America or the state of Louisiana is fundamentally, institutionally, or systemically racist or sexist.&rdquo;&nbsp;Rep. Garofalo&rsquo;s bill would apply to public postsecondary institutions and nonpublic postsecondary institutions that receive state funds. Lawmakers across the country are making similar proposals following the growing popularity of critical race theory and so-called &ldquo;diversity, equity, and inclusion&rdquo; trainings.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16254" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: University of Oregon promises to ignore Trump&#39;s critical race theory executive order]</a>Most recently, Iowa legislators proposed a bill that would defund any school forwarding the tenets of Nikole Hannah-Jones&rsquo; 1619 Project.Many such pieces of legislation stem from President Trump&rsquo;s &ldquo;Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,&rdquo; which barred federal agencies from instituting or funding diversity trainings that taught false narratives about race, sex, or the United States.&nbsp;Campus Reform reached out to Rep. Garofalo for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Other states are enacting similar proposals in the mold of President Trump’s 2020 executive order.

Louisiana introduces bill to ban teaching of Critical Race Theory topics like 'institutional racism'

In an essay <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/op-ed-give-californias-college-students-vaccine-priority-without-it-fall-campus-life-is-in-danger/ar-BB1dN7FQ">published</a> in the Los Angeles Times, two UCLA deans argued that <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">California&rsquo;s college students should have priority in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.Law school dean Jennifer Mnookin and music school dean Eileen Strempel argued that California&rsquo;s college students should have priority in getting the Covid-19 vaccine.&ldquo;Faculty, staff and students need to be given access to the vaccine sooner rather than later so that a full university life can resume in the fall,&rdquo; they wrote, recommending that &ldquo;students must also be part of the vaccine equation by summer.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17305" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UK universities could end up paying students back for services not provided during COVID]</a>Mnookin and Strempel do not think students necessarily need to be in line in front of the elderly, front-line workers, and those with an elevated health risk, but that the negative impacts of Covid-19 on college campuses provide enough reason to vaccinate them as soon as possible.The video conference teaching model does not, they said, allow for the usual &ldquo;high-density spaces where students and faculty interact inside and outside classrooms, laboratories, dorms and practice rooms.&rdquo; And the current &ldquo;low-density&rdquo; campus model &ldquo;cannot be the hub of intellectual intensity, the powerful collective place of invention and inquiry, nor fully inhabit its proven role as an engine of educational and economic activity.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17375" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: New &#39;G&#39; grading policy will allow Pitt professors to pass students who don&#39;t complete coursework by end of semester]</a>Online teaching has also been harder on minority communities than others, they said, arguing that the &quot;digital divide&quot; has become apparent throughout Covid-19, and will be more so if online learning continues.&nbsp;And they hope returning students to campus will reverse &quot;the estimated COVID-19 related economic losses through the end of 2020 (excluding the health system) topped $400 million.&quot;Neither Strempel or Mnookin responded when asked for further clarification on the op-ed.Follow the author of this article:&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/profile?pid=6097034" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Addison Pummill</a>

The professors argued that the Zoom classroom does not allow for much interaction.

UCLA deans call for vaccine priority for California college students

Skidmore College in New York will <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/22/skidmore-college-says-progressive-zionists-for-peace-can-form-trial-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">allow</a>&nbsp;a student group called the &quot;Progressive Zionists for Peace&quot; to undergo a trial period as a student group on campus, reversing its previous <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/15/skidmore-college-students-denied-trial-period-for-progressive-zionists-for-peace-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">decision</a> not to recognize the pro-Israel group as an official club until it gained &quot;more diverse perspectives.&quot;&nbsp;As first reported by <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/15/skidmore-college-students-denied-trial-period-for-progressive-zionists-for-peace-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Algemeiner</a>&nbsp;on March 15, the <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Club Affairs Committee of the Student Government Association (SGA) at Skidmore College denied the group&rsquo;s application for trial status in March because of concerns &ldquo;that a dialogue focused club with one perspective being conveyed could be troublesome.&quot;The students could reapply to become a club, according to student government senator Sarah Baker, after they made efforts to gain &ldquo;more diverse perspectives&rdquo; or &quot;reframe the mission to be more advocate focused with a specific stance.&quot;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16616" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Banning Israeli hummus and more anti-Semitic acts in 2020]</a>Progressive Zionists for Peace founder Nessa Goldhirsch Brown told <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/15/skidmore-college-students-denied-trial-period-for-progressive-zionists-for-peace-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Algemeiner</a> that she hoped to recruit &ldquo;pro-Israel, pro-peace students to organize to act together on behalf of a two-state solution and a more peaceful, secure, and democratic future for both Israelis and Palestinians.&quot;They were motivated, she said, by the Student Government Association&#39;s previously granting trial status to the Students for Justice in Palestine in New York.&nbsp;Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in New York City is a student group that <a href="https://nycsjp.wordpress.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">describes itself as</a> &ldquo;a diverse group of students and community members in New York City organized on democratic principles to fulfill our role as solidarity organizers against U.S. imperialism and Zionist settler-colonialism.&quot;The subject has also been brought up in the state legislature, with <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S3712?utm_content=in_senate_comm&utm_campaign=bill_alerts&utm_source=ny_state_senate&utm_medium=email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Senate Bill S3712</a> in New York being aimed at stopping universities from funding students groups that promote &ldquo;hate speech.&quot; This included groups like Boycotting, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17308" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia Tech soccer player who refused to kneel during anthem sues coach for alleged &#39;abuse and retaliation&#39;]</a>The college&#39;s reasoning for denying Progressive Zionists for Peace trial status &ldquo;was very hypocritical, confusing, and clear of a political bias against Israel. Zionism is an issue close to our hearts and we are enraged and disappointed that our school is clearly lenient towards some social/political issues but not others&rdquo;, Brown <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/15/skidmore-college-students-denied-trial-period-for-progressive-zionists-for-peace-club/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>.&nbsp;Jewish groups and free speech advocates also decried the decision. Stopantisemitism.org, a watchdog for anti-semitism, tweeted &ldquo;Skidmore College: Social Justice for Palestine has our full support. Also Skidmore College: Progressive Zionists for Peace. DENIED. Why is this discrimination being allowed at your school @skidmorecollege&rdquo;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Skidmore College: &#39;Social Justice for Palestine&#39; has our full support. Also Skidmore College: Progressive Zionists for Peace&#39; DENIED. Why is this discrimination being allowed at your school <a href="https://twitter.com/SkidmoreCollege?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SkidmoreCollege</a>?! <a href="https://t.co/lczL6Swmlx">pic.twitter.com/lczL6Swmlx</a>&mdash; StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) <a href="https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1371613758099972099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2021</a></blockquote> The college was also denounced in a scathing <a href="https://www.thefire.org/fire-letter-to-skidmore-college-march-17-2021/">letter</a> by Sabrina Conza, a program analyst for the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)</a>.&ldquo;This viewpoint-based rejection is a form of censorship that violates Skidmore&rsquo;s commitment to its students freedom of association and expression,&rdquo; she wrote, noting that the university&rsquo;s student handbook guarantees &ldquo;freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, the press, and religion, and the right to petition, limited only by protection of property, safety, and mutual respect.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17252" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UMKC promotes &lsquo;Angry White Men and How They Ruined the World&rsquo;]</a>Sara Miga, the director of external relations and strategic communications for Skidmore College told Campus Reform&nbsp;that the decision was &quot;never an issue of religion or ideology,&quot; but said that the Progressive Zionists were granted a trial period after a &quot;follow-up discussion&quot; occurred.&ldquo;On Friday, March 19, the Club Affairs Committee and the students seeking to establish Progressive Zionists for Peace engaged in a follow-up discussion to clarify technical matters of definition and scope, and the Club Affairs Committee voted to move the club into a trial period. This was never an issue of religion or ideology. &nbsp;Skidmore does not and will not tolerate anti-Semitism or religious discrimination of any kind. Skidmore seeks to create a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment for all, and there is no place for discrimination at Skidmore. Skidmore College is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive community in which members develop their abilities to live in a complex and interconnected world. In line with this mission, thoughtful, spirited and sometimes challenging discussions are encouraged. We support our students in their efforts to work out student governance and organization.&rdquo;In a statement to&nbsp;Campus Reform, Rena Nasar First, executive director of campus affairs for <a href="https://www.standwithus.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">StandWithUs</a>, an international non-partisan Israel education organization, said while its they&#39;re happy the decision was reversed, it&#39;s &quot;unacceptable&quot; that the club was denied recognition in the first place.&quot;It is good that this decision was reversed, but unacceptable that it happened in the first place. The Skidmore administration should take action to ensure that something like this never happens again,&quot; First said. Follow this author:&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SamPaco2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@SamPaco2</a>

The Skidmore College student government denied a progressive Zionist student group from forming on campus until it gained "more diverse perspectives."  

In reversal of initial decision, college gives Zionist student group recognition on campus

Republican Representative Mo Brooks (R-Al.) introduced legislation Thursday that would require colleges and universities to report and disclose any gifts from foreign countries and entities.The <a href="https://brooks.house.gov/sites/brooks.house.gov/files/Zero%20Foreign%20Influence%20in%20Education%20Act%20of%202021.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zero Foreign Influence in Education Act</a> amends Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 which states that higher education institutions are only required to report gifts from foreign sources amounting to $250,000 or more in a calendar year.The new<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3136?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr+3136%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;legislation</a> would &ldquo;require American universities to report any and all monetary contracts or gifts from foreign countries and entities,&rdquo; &ldquo;require universities to publicly disclose the names of all foreign donors,&rdquo; as well as &nbsp;&ldquo;require universities to list gift reasons, any gift conditions, and the department, college, or project the money is intended for,&rdquo; according to a press release.Cosponsors of the bill include Congressman Barry Moore (R-Al.), Congressman Daniel Webster (R-Fl.), Congressman Lance Gooden (R-Tex.), Congressman Brian Babin (R-Tex.), Congressman Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.).In an interview with Campus Reform, Brooks said that it &ldquo;probably&rdquo; will not gain bipartisan support because the &ldquo;socialist Democrats by and large have a great affinity for the communist Chinese party.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16857" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Multiple universities under the microscope for allegedly failing to disclose foreign ties]</a>In the <a href="https://brooks.house.gov/media-center/news-releases/congressman-mo-brooks-introduces-bill-exposing-foreign-influence-college" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">news release</a>, Brooks claims that Section 117 had &ldquo;historically gone unenforced until the Trump Administration started forcing schools to report.&rdquo; Because universities &ldquo;ignored&rdquo; Section 117, &nbsp;&ldquo;billions in foreign funds&rdquo; have been funneled to American universities in secret.&nbsp;When asked how this legislation would be enforced should it pass, Brooks told Campus Reform, &ldquo;Hopefully the universities of their own accord will obey the law out of fear that the penalties could have a significant, adverse effect on their universities. Ultimately, if universities are not obeying the law, then it comes down to the President of the United States or the Justice Department.&rdquo;&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have this law, you can&rsquo;t expect the president to be able to do anything of substanceThe news release highlights a 2020 U.S. Department of Education <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/institutional-compliance-section-117.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report</a> which found that at least $6.5 billion in foreign money failed to be disclosed by universities and colleges.&nbsp;&ldquo;Universities already have to keep track of where their dollars come from and what gets spent where. Shedding light on which foreign countries influence American education via large cash donations is a basic transparency requirement not only for students and faculty but for general oversight and national security,&rdquo; the news release states.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16739" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: GOP lawmakers demand UPenn Biden Center release foreign donation records]</a>The release also points out that there is a potential loophole in the current legislation that America&rsquo;s adversaries take advantage of.&ldquo;Foreign enterprises more adversarial to the United States know about the $250,000 threshold currently required in statute so they space out their checks or keep them under the $250,000 bar so the schools do not have to report.,&rdquo; the news release claims.Brooks also brought up Confucius Institutes in America as the &ldquo;most glaring and egregious instance of a foreign power infiltrating American universities.&rdquo;&nbsp;For years, Campus Reform has <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14847" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> on the prevalence of Chinese Communist Party funded Confucius Institutes on U.S. college campuses. These institutes are marketed as Chinese language and culture centers; however, U.S. intelligence officials have warned that these centers are basically &quot;propaganda&quot; arms of the communist country.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not concerned much about whatever influence there is from other Republics, but I am greatly concerned about wrongful influence via the Communist Chinese Party,&rdquo; Brooks told Campus Reform.&nbsp;&ldquo;Because in their worldview, there is no place for America&rsquo;s Bill of Rights and there is no place for the citizenry electing the political leadership,&rdquo; he continued.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17195" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Marco Rubio targets Confucius Institutes with new bill]</a>&ldquo;Recent reports of academic espionage and foreign influence in American higher education highlight the need for robust transparency requirements for foreign gifts to universities,&rdquo; Brooks said.&ldquo;The American people deserve to know when foreign countries, many of whom are America&rsquo;s geopolitical foes, are attempting to buy access to research universities or covertly trying to mold young American minds by surreptitiously influencing curriculum or extracurricular activities,&rdquo; he continued.&ldquo;If universities, which are heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer, are going to take foreign money, they should have to show all of it,&rdquo; Brooks stated.&ldquo;Sunshine is the best disinfectant,&rdquo; he concluded.When asked what the next step is in ridding higher education institutions of foreign influence, Brooks said it is &ldquo;to cut off federal funding to any university that persists in engaging in joint ventures or partnerships or the like with undesirable foreign interests.&rdquo;&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/redwave1776" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@redwave1776</a>

Brooks said that the next step in ridding higher education institutions of foreign influence is to "cut off federal funding to any university that persists in engaging in joint ventures or partnerships or the like with undesirable foreign interests.”

Republicans introduce legislation to require colleges to report all foreign gifts

The College of William &amp; Mary and the University of Southern will close their Confucius Institutes, Campus Reform&nbsp;recently learned.The College of William &amp; Mary wrote that its Confucius Institute, which was launched in 2011, will <a href="https://www.wm.edu/sites/confuciusinstitute/index.php">close</a> on June 30 &ldquo;at the completion of the current agreement with the university.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17199">[RELATED: Tennessee governor moves to end Confucius Institutes]</a>&ldquo;William &amp; Mary will continue to explore and strengthen its independent collaborations with Beijing Normal University (BNU) and other universities in China in order to maintain robust language, cultural and research opportunities for our students, faculty and the wider Williamsburg community,&rdquo; the school said.&nbsp;The school&rsquo;s Confucius Institute &ldquo;is a collaborative program in partnership with Beijing Normal University (BNU) and the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), a public institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17016" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Senate passes bill to combat Chinese Communist Party propaganda on campus]</a>William &amp; Mary Director of News and Media Suzanne Clavet told&nbsp;Campus Reform that they will maintain their relationship with BNU &ldquo;in order to maintain robust language, cultural and research opportunities for our students, faculty and the wider Williamsburg community.&rdquo;According to the William &amp; Mary Confucius Institute <a href="https://www.wm.edu/sites/confuciusinstitute/wm-agreement-with-hanban_signed-2016_english-version.pdf">agreement</a>, the center has a mandate to &ldquo;increase mutual understanding among people in China and in the United States.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/?id=16758" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Calls to close CCP-funded Confucius Institutes grow louder. Here&#39;s what&#39;s fueling them.]</a>The University of Southern Maine likewise shuttered its Confucius Institute, stating that it &ldquo;reached too few students to be sustainable,&rdquo; as the <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2021/04/13/usm-cutting-ties-with-chinese-government-funded-program/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Press Herald</a> reported.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17189">[RELATED: Students at Tufts successfully organize to get their school&rsquo;s Confucius Institute scrapped]</a>Leading American officials consistently warn that despite these seemingly benign intentions, the Confucius Institute program functionally exists to propagate and justify the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.Most recently, Sen. Marco Rubio proposed passing the Foreign Influence Transparency Act, which would officially recognize that Confucius Institutes are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and would require &ldquo;institutions that have entered into an agreement with a Confucius Institute to disclose the full agreement on its website and to the Department of Education or risk losing their Student and Exchange Visitor Program.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16882">[RELATED: House Republicans urge Biden to reconsider rule on CCP&#39;s Confucius Institutes]</a>Likewise, House Republicans asked the Biden administration to reinstitute Trump-era regulations that would compel universities to reveal their ties to the Confucius Institute.Under pressure from top lawmakers, other schools, like Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, shuttered their own Confucius Institutes in recent weeks.Campus Reform reached out to the College of William &amp; Mary and the University of Southern Maine for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.&nbsp;Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://@BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The College of William & Mary and the University of Southern Maine became the latest schools to shut down their Confucius Institutes.

William & Mary, U of Southern Maine become latest schools to close down Confucius Institutes

Oklahoma State University-Tulsa will join other campuses across the United States in creating &ldquo;racial healing circles.&rdquo;According to the university&#39;s <a href="https://tulsa.okstate.edu/trht" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>, the new &ldquo;Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation&rdquo; is part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation&rsquo;s nationwide initiative to &ldquo;address the historic and contemporary effects of racism.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17333" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof tells Senate Judiciary Committee that election security laws &#39;target Black voters&#39; like &#39;Jim Crow&#39;]</a>According to the Kellogg Foundation&rsquo;s <a href="https://healourcommunities.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a>, each of the fourteen TRHT initiatives across the United States received between $1.5 and $4 million in funds that last between two and five years. In 2017, the organization committed $24 million to fulfill the projects.OSU-Tulsa Communications Coordinator Aaron Campbell told Campus Reform that the center&rsquo;s activities &ldquo;will be donor and grant funded.&rdquo; The center &ldquo;has applied for a Kellogg Foundation grant and is awaiting an award decision,&rdquo; while OSU-Tulsa &ldquo;is paying a small stipend to the acting director of the center, who is a faculty member.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16816" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: University of Kentucky promotes segregated &#39;racial healing circles&#39;]</a>Among the TRHT center&#39;s first initiatives will be &ldquo;racial healing circles&rdquo; &mdash; which involve &ldquo;conversations between participants to discuss experiences with race and conscious and unconscious biases.&rdquo;Racial healing circles &mdash; which are run by &ldquo;trained racial healing circle practitioners&rdquo; &mdash; provide &ldquo;opportunities to reflect and acknowledge the participants&#39; unquestioned assumptions and biases in a way that is non-threatening and encouraging.&rdquo;&nbsp;Participants become able to &ldquo;confront the historic and contemporary causes and effects of systemic racism while being empowered to promote equity and social justice.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16612" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof leading &#39;racial healing&#39; commission says &#39;racial reconciliation&#39; is &#39;not applicable&#39;]</a>Campus Reform has reported on several instances of colleges establishing &ldquo;racial healing circles&rdquo; and &ldquo;Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation&rdquo; groups.For instance, a University of Kentucky professor hosted a free six-week virtual series of racial healing circles to &ldquo;allow Black community members to discuss racial identity development, racial socialization and cognitive, emotional and somatic responses to racism.&rdquo;Participants were able to join sessions such as &ldquo;Surrendering Superwoman Syndrome,&rdquo; &ldquo;Healing While Black,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Family Matters&rdquo; &mdash; geared toward Black women, men, and families, respectively.<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17259" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: While spending millions on luxury homes, BLM co-founder told college students that capitalism is &#39;more tragic&#39; than COVID-19]</a>Likewise, a group of professors is attempting to launch an official &ldquo;United States Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation&rdquo; movement alongside a similar push from Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).Campus Reform reached out to Oklahoma State University-Tulsa for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Other universities across the United States have been establishing similar initiatives.

OSU-Tulsa becomes the latest campus to run ‘racial healing circles’

Responding to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/derek-chauvin-trial-verdict" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">conviction</a> of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, American University announced that it will now offer &ldquo;Black Affinity Housing.&rdquo;&ldquo;The murder of George Floyd and the many other acts of violence against Black people and communities of color are horrible reminders that racism still exists in many forms&rdquo; the university <a href="https://www.american.edu/president/announcements/april-20-2021.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> on Tuesday. It stressed the importance of creating &ldquo;the space to process these events and care for ourselves and one another.&rdquo;In accordance with this goal, it is &ldquo;working to open Black Affinity Housing in the fall and advance a sense of belonging for the community.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17241" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Chico State president will lead university in &#39;antiracist&#39; journey after reading book by Critical Race Theorist]</a>American University says on its 2021-2022 room selection <a href="https://www.american.edu/ocl/housing/room-selection.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">website</a> for returning students says that &ldquo;the Black Affinity Housing located in Roper Hall provides an intentional residential community dedicated to celebrating, exploring, and affirming black student experiences at AU and beyond.&rdquo;&ldquo;The live-in experience encourages dialogue and community building that is mindful of the diverse social, cultural, and academic needs of Black and multicultural students,&rdquo; the university continues. &ldquo;Black Affinity Housing will enrich all of campus life by promoting solidarity among students of all backgrounds and identities.&rdquo;Campus Reform recently covered an op-ed written by American University freshman Kayla Kelly, who argued that welcoming White students back to campus after COVID-induced shutdowns &ldquo;could evoke similar effects of settler colonialism and negatively impact&rdquo; the Black community of Washington, D.C.<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16917" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Student newspaper publishes op-ed criticizing return of &#39;invasive species&#39; White peers to &#39;Chocolate City&#39;]</a>&ldquo;Settler colonialism is a form of colonialism that replaces the original population with a new invasive species,&rdquo; Kelly wrote, &ldquo;the settler system stakes over the space, resources and culture of the environment it encompasses, displacing the original population.&rdquo;&nbsp;Other prominent universities across the United States have also experimented with segregated housing and events.&nbsp;The Executive Director of Residential Life at the University of Nevada-Reno, for example, said on April 1 that racially segregated dorms &ldquo;are a national best practice in university residential life and housing communities.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17167" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: &#39;A national best practice&#39;: University employee doubles down on defense of racially segregated housing]</a>Campus Reform reached out to American University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Other universities across the nation have instituted similar segregated housing plans.

American University announces 'Black Affinity Housing'

The University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business sent an email to students on April 7 announcing the creation of &ldquo;identity spaces.&rdquo; According to an email obtained by Campus Reform, &ldquo;The Program Office [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] DEI Team across all platforms are facilitating open identity spaces for students to meet, network, and socialize with other students across all programs that share the same identity.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17045" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17045" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Berkeley &#39;Black Graduation&#39; under fire for bringing back &#39;Democrats&#39; segregationist history&#39;]</a> There are 11 different &ldquo;communit[ies]&rdquo; for students to join, with those being first-generation students, women, veterans, Black/African-American, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Native American, religious minorities, international students, Asian Americans, and disability. The &ldquo;identity spaces&rdquo; will be held until the end of the spring semester, according to the email. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17001" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17001" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17001" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UC-Berkeley unveils plan for racial quota]</a> Communications Director for the California College Republicans Dylan Martin told Campus Reform, universities should &ldquo;not be pushing anything that encourages segregation of students into racial, sexual, and religious groups.&rdquo; &ldquo;Instead of forming &#39;identity space&#39; cliques, our universities should focus on bonding us around things everyone has the potential to take interest in, not fixed racial, sexual, and religious backgrounds. Our students should &#39;meet, network, and socialize&#39; with people from all walks of life. They should bond on ideas, on sports, on campus events, on music, on art &mdash; not on things like the color of their skin. If students choose to pursue creating identity groups on their own accord, then they have the freedom to do so. However, our universities should not be pushing anything that encourages segregation of students into racial, sexual, and religious groups,&rdquo; he said. Martin went on to say how this decision was not surprising following UC Berkeley&rsquo;s decision to host a separate &ldquo;Black Graduation ceremony for students.&rdquo; Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to UC-Berkeley, but did not receive a response. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ashleyecarnahan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@ashleyecarnahan</a>

Students are to use these spaces to “meet, network, and socialize.”

Berkeley Haas School of Business creates 11 different 'Identity Spaces' for networking

Over 226 students and 43 organizations at Harvard University signed a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NtNoEeGoHUFPhUJJxhw0EXKJTpC0n9fi_bXrx3YbVYU/edit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">petition</a> calling on the university administration to condemn Israel&rsquo;s &ldquo;excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians.&rdquo; The petition, created by the Palestine Caucus at Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, and more organizations, states that Israel is committing &ldquo;ethnic clensing.&rdquo; &ldquo;We, as the Palestine Caucus at Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Harvard Palestine Health Initiative at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Divinity School Students for Palestinian Rights, and the Middle East and North Africa Student Organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design write to firstly acknowledge and express our outrage at the latest wave of Israeli state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians,&rdquo; the petition reads. &ldquo;The current escalation of violence against Palestinians in Palestine and in Israel follows years of systematic oppression and ethnic cleansing committed by the State of Israel.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15905" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: CSUN professor runs &#39;Boycott Israel Resource Page&#39; on university website]</a> The petition goes on to state that the violence is &ldquo;right-wing&rdquo; and &ldquo;Israeli state-sanctioned,&rdquo; also claiming that Israel &ldquo;has erected a web of discriminatory laws that pervade every aspect of Palestinian life.&rdquo; Additionally, the petition calls on the Harvard University administration to divest from all companies who are &ldquo;involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise.&rdquo; &ldquo;We call on our university to end its complicity with Israeli apartheid policies and occupation by removing its investments in companies that are involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise until equal rights are guaranteed for all citizens in Israel and Palestine,&rdquo; the petition states. The student groups state that Israel has enacted &ldquo;the most intense aerial bombardments of Gaza since 2014&rdquo; this week, but fail to mention the rockets being fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, with targets including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and more, according to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/gaza-israel-diverts-flights-rocket-barrage-palestinians-death-67-1.9796891" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Haaretz</a>. Making multiple demands, the students who signed the petition want Harvard to make a &ldquo;public statement rebuking Israel&rsquo;s excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16441" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: San Francisco State University passes BDS resolution against Israel]</a> The Executive Director for Campus Affairs for SandWithUs, a pro-Israel education organization, Rena Nasar First told Campus Reform that they are &quot;appalled&quot; by the efforts of Harvard students to spread &quot;misinformation and hate against Israel.&quot; &ldquo;We are appalled by the efforts of Harvard University student groups to spread misinformation and hate against Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself from the constant barrage of rockets targeting Israeli civilians by Hamas, a terrorist organization,&quot; First said. &quot;Such misinformation and hate will only serve to harm innocent Israelis, Jews and Palestinians. We call on Harvard&rsquo;s administration to condemn this misinformation and hate and, the terrorism inflicted against innocent Israelis by Hamas. It is imperative that Harvard&rsquo;s administration brings communities together in pursuit of accurate education and peace building to ensure a campus environment free from hate.&rdquo; The petition also calls on students to call the U.S. State Department and Deoartment of Defnse to &ldquo; Demand the end of Israel&rsquo;s forced displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem,&rdquo; write to their congressperson and ask them to support H.R. 2590, the <a href="https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases/mccollum-introduces-historic-legislation-defending-human-rights-palestinian" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act</a>, and speak out on social media. &ldquo;Educate yourself and your community about human rights abuses in Palestine. Write, tweet, and share on social media platforms, but above all, reach out to your representatives at the federal and local levels,&rdquo; the petition states. As of May 13, the petition has gained 226 signatures from students at Harvard, and 43 signatures from student organizations. Campus Reform reached out to Harvard University for comment. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@asabes10</a><a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--red); font-weight: 600;" target="_blank"></a><strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--red); font-weight: 600;" target="_blank"></a>

Harvard University students and student organizations signed a petition demanding the university divest from all companies who do business with Israel.

Harvard students demand university to 'condemn' Israel’s 'excessive use of force'

A senior fellow at Yale University&rsquo;s China center wrote an article explaining why Confucius Institutes should not be removed from American university campuses.&nbsp;<a href="https://law.yale.edu/jamie-p-horsley" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jamie Horsley</a> &mdash; senior fellow at Yale Law School&rsquo;s Paul Tsai China Center and a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution &mdash; wrote in a Lawfare&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/its-time-for-a-new-policy-on-confucius-institutes/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">article</a> reposted by Brookings that &ldquo;the U.S. government should increase funding for Mandarin language and China studies courses, but also stop forcing cash-strapped universities to choose between federal funding and properly managed CI programs.&rdquo;As Campus Reform&nbsp;has frequently <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15448" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a>, &nbsp;Confucius Institutes have drawn suspicion from American lawmakers as a &ldquo;foreign mission&rdquo; closely tied with the Chinese Communist Party.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15448" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: US designates Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes as &#39;foreign missions&#39;]</a>Horsley discussed &ldquo;a decline of American student interest in China studies and learning Mandarin Chinese&rdquo; &mdash; a trend which, combined with &ldquo;inflammatory rhetoric&rdquo; about Confucius Institute programs &mdash; exacerbates &ldquo;a national foreign language deficit at a time when training Mandarin speakers familiar with an ever more consequential China should be a national priority.&rdquo;She also recommended that the Biden administration &ldquo;lift, or provide necessary waivers of, federal funding restrictions on universities that demonstrate appropriate academic freedom and institutional safeguards around their CIs, which are no longer directly funded by the Chinese government.&rdquo;&ldquo;It should also consider authorizing the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (CIUS) to serve as a visa sponsor to assist Chinese teachers and staff of CIs obtain the proper visas, as well as enable CIUS to serve as a clearinghouse for information on such PRC personnel for relevant U.S. government agencies,&rdquo; she added.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17168" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: A Stanford researcher was recently indicted for China ties. As new China center opens, has Stanford learned its lesson?]</a>Later in the article, Horsley admitted that Confucius Institutes generated &ldquo;legitimate concerns about academic freedom and independence due to their direct support from, and admitted role as a &ldquo;soft power&rdquo; instrument for, China&rsquo;s party-state.&rdquo; Though she also acknowledges that &ldquo;The CI project is intended to promote a favorable understanding of China,&rdquo; she notes that the program does not &ldquo;enjoy a monopoly over information available on campuses.&rdquo;The <a href="https://law.yale.edu/china-center/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Paul Tsai China Center</a> &ldquo;works collaboratively with a broad range of top experts in the Chinese government, universities, and civil society on concrete projects designed to have a positive practical impact.&rdquo;In 2016, Taiwanese-born <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/joseph-tsai/?sh=2848bf137b32" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joseph Tsai</a> &mdash; son of Paul Tsai and co-founder of Chinese e-commerce business Alibaba &mdash; funded the center with a $30 million investment. The center was subsequently named after his father.Campus Reform reached out to Horsley for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.&nbsp;Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ben Zeisloft</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

The China center is funded by a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.

Senior fellow at Yale’s China center explains why Confucius Institutes should stay

JACOBSON: If we defund police on college campuses, 'we will certainly see an increase in violent crime' in academic institutions  

Stanford University&rsquo;s student newspaper sent a controversial tweet about two Black students. Now, it is suspending its Twitter account and requiring the entire masthead to take anti-bias training.As editor in chief of The Stanford Daily&nbsp;Erin Woo explained in a <a href="https://www.stanforddaily.com/2021/04/05/letter-from-the-editor-regarding-saturdays-tweet/?fbclid=IwAR1b3Y47rLbXVJUotQps8DHeoLrjPsN_HtHQpWuO7jmaw5rnVvY4zGyZVB0">letter</a>, t<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">he paper&#39;s humor section,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/theoccasionally?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Stanford Occasionally</a>, sent a tweet linking the student government elections to the movie &ldquo;Godzilla vs. Kong,&quot; which was at the time a popular recent release.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17168">[RELATED: A Stanford researcher was recently indicted for China ties. As new China center opens, has Stanford learned its lesson?]</a>Woo said the tweet was riffing off an alleged conflict between &ldquo;two candidates, both of whom are Black, as a conflict between Kong and Godzilla&rdquo; &mdash; a move that was deemed racist due to &ldquo;the anti-Black history of the King Kong figure as a hyper-sexualized caricature of Black men.&rdquo;&ldquo;I am so sorry for the harm it has caused the Black community and the students referenced in the tweet,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;I also apologize that it took students from the Black community to raise concerns before The Daily took action on the tweet, and that our initial response to the community member who flagged the tweet was hasty and insensitive.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17308" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Virginia Tech soccer player who refused to kneel during anthem sues coach for alleged &#39;abuse and retaliation&#39;]</a>Woo took &ldquo;full responsibility&rdquo; for the incident, making it clear that the tweet &ldquo;was not written by humor writers or editors.&rdquo; Nevertheless, the &ldquo;entire editorial team&rdquo; will undergo &ldquo;anti-bias training&rdquo; to &ldquo;address the ignorance that was at the root of the tweet&rsquo;s creation.&rdquo;In addition to &ldquo;working to draft clearer humor and social media policies,&rdquo; The Stanford Daily&nbsp;&ldquo;suspended the Twitter account the tweet was posted on.&rdquo; The students &ldquo;will not bring this account back at least until new policies are in place and all staffers have undergone training.&rdquo;Campus Reform asked Woo to clarify why the entire editorial team will undergo anti-bias training if they were not responsible for the incident. Woo declined to provide comment beyond her statement.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17213">[RELATED: Narrative shattered: &#39;KKK,&#39; &#39;White power&#39; graffiti on campus written by Black student]</a>The Stanford University College Republicans noticed irony in the situation.&ldquo;Last summer, @StanfordDaily told us that they would not publish an op-ed critical of Black Lives Matter because somehow criticizing BLM is &lsquo;anti-blackness,&rsquo;&rdquo; they remarked on social media. &ldquo;Last week, The Stanford Daily published a satirical tweet comparing a black student government official to a gorilla.&rdquo;&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Last summer, <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordDaily?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StanfordDaily</a> told us that they would not publish an op-ed critical of Black Lives Matter because somehow criticizing BLM is &quot;anti-blackness.&quot; Last week, The Stanford Daily published a satirical tweet comparing a black student government official to a gorilla. <a href="https://t.co/w8VEPZiq9t">pic.twitter.com/w8VEPZiq9t</a>&mdash; Stanford College Republicans (@Stanford_GOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/Stanford_GOP/status/1381365320196222976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2021</a></blockquote> &nbsp;&nbsp;Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Though editors were not responsible for the tweet, the entire editorial team will undergo “anti-bias training.”

Stanford newspaper tweeted movie reference deemed racist; will now subject ENTIRE STAFF to 'anti-bias training'

The University of California-Santa Barbara is using federal taxpayer dollars to create a &ldquo;feminist studies&rdquo; degree program.An April 13 <a href="https://t.e2ma.net/message/ccwytm/kubd4ib">letter</a> from the Office of the Chancellor explains steps that UC Santa Barbara will take &ldquo;to make sure that anti-Blackness, which is at the core of all such tragedies as George Floyd&#39;s death, does not have a place on our campus and in our community.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17244">[RELATED: &#39;Anti-racist journey&#39; prompts UNR lecturer to apologize for teaching &#39;Jingle Bells,&rsquo; &lsquo;Baa Baa Black Sheep&#39;]</a>Among these steps is the use of a $3 million Department of Education Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) grant to create a new &ldquo;4+1&rdquo; program. The program grants students a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in ethnic studies or feminist studies, and later, a master&#39;s degree and teaching credential in the <a href="https://education.ucsb.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gevirtz Graduate School of Education</a>.UC Santa Barbara will spend money on a new degree program despite being previously <a href="https://chancellor.ucsb.edu/memos/2020-07-17-covid-19-update-addressing-budget-impacts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">concerned</a> that the COVID-19-recession and reductions in state funding could cause the university to lose between $160 million and $210 million by June 30, 2021 &mdash; a projection that led to salary freezes and a voluntary pay cut of 10 percent for top administrators like Chancellor Henry T. Yang.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17204">[RELATED: Georgetown shells out $1M for racial equity]</a>According to the Department of Education <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/idues/hsidivision.html">website</a>, the Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Division &ldquo;provides grant funding to institutions of higher education to assist with strengthening institutional programs, facilities, and services to expand the educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and other underrepresented populations.&rdquo;Campus Reform asked the Department of Education whether an HSI grant can be properly used on a feminist studies program. This article will be updated accordingly.Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Months ago, the school implemented pay cuts and salary freezes to stay solvent through COVID-19.

UC Santa Barbara unveils new ‘feminist studies’ degree program

The Pennsylvania State University&rsquo;s faculty senate passed &ldquo;inclusive language&rdquo; reform legislation. As Penn State News <a href="https://news.psu.edu/story/657788/2021/05/05/academics/senate-passes-diversity-and-equity-resolutions-final-meeting-year" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">detailed</a>, the Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs passed a <a href="https://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/april-27-2021-agenda/appendix-c/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resolution</a> for the &ldquo;Removal of Gendered &amp; Binary Terms from Course and Program Descriptions.&rdquo; &ldquo;The University, as with most all academic institutions world-wide, has grown out of a typically male-centered world,&rdquo; reads the resolution&rsquo;s introduction. &ldquo;As such, many terms in our lexicon carry a strong, male-centric, binary character to them.&rdquo; The resolution asserts that &ldquo;terms such as &lsquo;freshmen&rsquo; are decidedly male-specific, while terms such as &lsquo;upperclassmen&rsquo; can be interpreted as both sexist and classist.&rdquo; Terms such as &ldquo;junior&rdquo; and &ldquo;senior&rdquo; are supposedly &ldquo;parallel to western male father-son naming conventions, and much of our written documentation uses he/she pronouns.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17310" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: University of Montana student government unanimously passes bill to require &lsquo;anti-bias&rsquo; training among leadership] </a> The resolution recommends that the university make &ldquo;editorial updates to our course and program descriptions, which appear in the course catalog and bulletin, to remove gendered terms.&rdquo; &quot;We suggest that the University consider changes to all written materials, including recruiting materials, admissions materials, scholarship information, housing materials, other outward-facing documents, internal documents, and websites,&quot; the resolution states. For instance, individuals at the university should &ldquo;move away from the use of gendered pronouns when referring to students, faculty, staff, and guests in course descriptions and degree program descriptions.&rdquo; Such changes would take the form of replacing &ldquo;he/him/his&rdquo; and &ldquo;she/her/hers&rdquo; with &ldquo;they/them/theirs&rdquo; or &ldquo;non-gendered terms such as student, faculty member, staff member.&rdquo; The resolution also suggests departing &ldquo;from the use of academic grouping titles that stem from a primarily male-centric academic history in course descriptions and degree program descriptions.&rdquo; For instance, &ldquo;freshman/sophomore/junior/senior&rdquo; would be replaced with &ldquo;first-year,&rdquo; &ldquo;second-year,&rdquo; &ldquo;third-year,&rdquo; and &ldquo;fourth-year.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17310" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: RIT student gov loses its mind over request to discuss BLM somewhere else]</a> However, the resolution clarified that &ldquo;concerns have been raised that numbering years beyond the fourth (4th) would perhaps negatively reflect on students who, for various reasons, are taking longer to complete their (typically) four-year programs, and are also referred to as &lsquo;super-seniors.&rsquo;&rdquo; In these cases, the resolution suggests the term &quot;advanced-standing&quot; be used. &ldquo;The committee recognizes that there may be places where these terms, especially gender terms, may need to remain intact, for example in the case of courses or degrees that delve into gender studies,&rdquo; the legislation further stipulated. &ldquo;In such cases, efforts shall be made to clearly delineate between the &lsquo;academic&rsquo; study of these gendered terms, and the newly established nomenclature as it would apply to faculty, staff, students, and guests.&rdquo; Students and faculty at universities across the United States have implemented similar changes in the interest of inclusivity. The University of Virginia student government, for instance, offered a referendum to scrap all gendered pronouns from its constitution in favor of gender-neutral terminology. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17256" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA students scrap gendered pronouns from constitution]</a> 88.75 percent of students at the university approved the change. Campus Reform reached out to Penn State and the faculty senate for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow this author on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: var(--red); text-decoration: none !important; user-select: auto; font-weight: 600; font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The resolution urges the university to change all written materials with the "junior/senior" label because it is "parallel to western male father-son naming conventions."

Penn State faculty cancels 'male-centric' 'Junior' and 'Senior' labels

The University of Michigan Central Student Government released a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dddnormjttp3f8K1UCjw1lREzUbU5P2h/view" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">scathing statement</a> in support of Palestine and against Israel, prompted by the ongoing conflict in Jerusalem. The letter accuses Israel of &quot;settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;We aim to do whatever is in our power to ensure that we remain in lockstep with [the Palestinians] and their fight against oppression,&quot; the student government said in an open letter.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16940" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UMich &lsquo;Liberation Front&rsquo; demands removal of Sabra hummus and end to Israel trips]</a>Signers of the letter include the student government&#39;s President, Vice President, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator. The Arab Student Association and Muslim Student Association also signed the letter. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet">[Press Release 05.10.2021] If you have any questions regarding the following statement or if your organization would like to sign in support please fill out this form: <a href="https://t.co/CJi3xHUUHp">https://t.co/CJi3xHUUHp</a> <a href="https://t.co/wk1LrFY6uR">pic.twitter.com/wk1LrFY6uR</a>&mdash; Central Student Govt (@umcsg) <a href="https://twitter.com/umcsg/status/1391931412371197953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2021</a></blockquote> &quot;In an effort to further suppress Palestinians, Israeli police and settler militias are currently targeting Muslims during the holiest month of Ramadan at the third most divine site in Islam; Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem,&quot; the letter states. &quot;Israel threatens Palestinians of all religions, from those displaced in diaspora all over the globe to Palestinians in Palestine.&quot;The letter blames the University of Michigan for not doing enough to cut ties with Israel. &quot;The University of Michigan remains complicit by choosing not to divest from Israeli companies profiting off of the settler state&rsquo;s occupation.&quot; The student government also laments its own organization&#39;s &quot;prior complicity with Israel&#39;s violence through participation in events such as yearly trips to Israel that supported the settler-state in its apartheid and occupation.&quot;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14893" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: GW hires BDS loving dean with history of &lsquo;antisemitism&rsquo;]</a>The letter recommends that like-minded readers follow pro-Palestinian social media accounts, including several that support BDS.&nbsp;A university spokesperson told Campus Reform,&nbsp;&quot;U-M&#39;s Central Student Government does not speak for the University of Michigan.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;A core value of the University of Michigan is freedom of speech and respect for diverse ideas and viewpoints,&quot; the spokesperson continued.The Central Student Government did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.&nbsp;<strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/AngelaLMorabito" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--red); font-weight: 600; font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">@AngelaLMorabito</a>

A letter issued by the student government accuses Israel of "settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid."

Amid violence, UMich student government pledges to be in ‘lockstep’ with Palestinians in their ‘fight against oppression’

Student Council members at the University of Virginia passed a bill encouraging the school to &ldquo;divest&rdquo; from fossil fuel investments. On February 9, members of the student council <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1igSnHkaz_haf2EVZHwo04QbqTrSMLHIRFTSQe8YMSUk/edit#gid=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">passed</a> a resolution voicing support for student group DivestUVA&rsquo;s <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cej54cpe_1sLL5kp09efrHEKd6NefxI9/view" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter </a>to the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. The letter asks for the withdrawal of funds from entities supporting the use of fossil fuels. &ldquo;We have worked for the past five years as DivestUVA to advocate for the divestment of university funds from fossil fuel-based entities,&rdquo; reads the document. &ldquo;We believe that our endowment investments are a tool to either foster the change we would like to see in our local and global communities or to continue to uphold existing racially and environmentally unjust power structures that, as an institution, we publicly decry.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16770" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof-turned-Biden official advocates for &#39;Green Banks&#39; to fight climate change]</a> The students insist that divesting from fossil fuel investments will &ldquo;serve as an active agent for racial justice&rdquo; in addition to meeting carbon neutrality by 2030. Several student organizations &mdash; including the Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA, Animal Justice Advocates, Profit with Purpose, and the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition &mdash; signed the letter. Noah Strike, the University of Virginia Student Council&rsquo;s Director of Media Relations, declined to comment. The letter presents the University of Virginia Investment Management Company with data from the NAACP&rsquo;s Clean Air Task Force, which draws a connection between racial justice and the proximity of African-American communities to power plants. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16382" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA employees form anti-racism union]</a> According to the letter, several American universities &mdash; including Brown, Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown &mdash; have launched divestment initiatives within the past three years. The students recommend that the Investment Management Company reinvest funds into composting, electric buses, living wages for university employees, and &ldquo;community gardens.&rdquo; Deven Upadhyay &mdash; a University of Virginia undergraduate &mdash; told Campus Reform that &ldquo;the Student Council&rsquo;s goal is surely an ambitious one and setting ambitious goals is core to any student council.&rdquo; &ldquo;Although it is very unlikely any of these changes from the divestment to occur in the near future, the Student Council feels a sense of success by simply passing unrealistic resolutions,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;In a way, this mirrors empty, utopian objectives set by Congresspeople. Fossil fuel investments seem to keep the University running and to jeopardize that through experimenting with alternatives right now is risky at worst and insignificant at best.&rdquo; The students repeatedly invoked tenets of the University of Virginia Racial Equity Task Force&rsquo;s report, &ldquo;Audacious Future: Commitment Required,&rdquo; which Campus Reform covered in August. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=15575" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA task force wants to earmark nearly $1 billion for racial equity]</a> The report recommends earmarking $950 million over the course of ten years for racial equity projects, including $100 to $150 million for the creation of a new African-American and African Studies department, as well as $500 to $650 million for a perpetual equity &ldquo;quasi-endowment.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Student government members at the University of Virginia passed legislation endorsing a call for the school to “divest” from fossil fuel investments.

Utopian dream? UVA student gov wants 'community gardens' instead of fossil fuels

In an effort to combat climate change, Columbia University released a statement that it &ldquo;does not hold any direct investments in publicly traded oil and gas companies and is formalizing this <a href="https://www.finance.columbia.edu/content/relevant-investment-policies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">policy</a> of non-investment for the foreseeable future.&quot;&nbsp;These policies came about after a <a href="https://www.finance.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/ACSRI/ACSRI%202020%20-%202021/11.12.20%20Final%20ACSRI%20Position%20on%20Fossil%20Fuel%20Divestment.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recommendation</a> from the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing, a committee that includes faculty, students, and alumni.&nbsp;According to the university <a href="https://news.columbia.edu/news/university-announcement-fossil-fuel-investments" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announcement</a>, the policies have the potential to spread to other industries that affect greenhouse gas emissions. The university has pledged that it plans to avoid investing in private funds that primarily invest in oil and gas companies.&nbsp;However, the policy recognizes that certain fossil fuel companies plan to transition their businesses to net-zero emissions by 2050. If companies can provide a credible plan to do so, the university said it might make an exception in the new rule.&nbsp;Columbia University is just the latest Ivy League school to gravitate toward fossil fuel divestment. As&nbsp;Campus Reform <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14032" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> in 2019, students stormed the field during a Harvard-Yale football game to demand that their respective schools divest from fossil fuels. Just a few months later, the Harvard faculty <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=14330" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">voted</a> in support of fossil fuel divestment.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13752" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UC system announces divestment from fossil fuels]</a>&ldquo;There is an undeniable obligation binding Columbia and other universities to confront the climate crisis across every dimension of our institutions,&rdquo; Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said.&nbsp;The new policies are accompanied by a revised set of principles for the Columbia University Investment Management Company (IMC). The IMC plans to invest more heavily in companies that actively fight to reduce greenhouse gases and contribute to net-zero emissions.&nbsp;Columbia University has been seeking out ways to fight climate change for years. In addition to the recent policy change, the university made the decision in 2017 to divest from thermal coal and created the Columbia Climate School in 2020.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11983" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UIUC shrugs shoulders at fossil fuel divestment demand]</a>Center for Industrial Progress President Alex Epstein told Campus Reform that he has a specific message for schools choosing to divest.&quot;To institutions divesting from fossil fuels: By discouraging the lowest-cost form of reliable energy you are not making the world a better place to live. You are keeping the world a terrible place for the billions of desperately poor people who desperately need abundant energy.&quot;These changes at Columbia University come shortly after President Joe Biden signed an executive order to halt the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As part of Biden&rsquo;s $2 trillion clean energy infrastructure plan, he plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.&nbsp;This executive order resulted in the elimination of 11,000 jobs &ndash; 8,000 of which belong to union workers &ndash; in 2021. The Biden administration has still not released plans to address the severe job losses this order has caused.&nbsp;When asked for a comment, Columbia University responded with the link to the university announcement.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/profile?pid=6097034" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Addison Pummill</a>

Columbia University's decision is the latest in a broader Ivy League push to divest from fossil fuels.

Columbia University joins Ivy League opposition to fossil fuels

The faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University voted in favor of fossil fuel divestment 179-20.The divestment proposal demands that the Harvard Management Company end all investments in fossil-fuel related industries. In addition, the proposal requires the HMC to remove any advisors who are &ldquo;unwilling or unable to comply&rdquo; with the divestment motion.According to the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/5/faculty-vote-support-divestment/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Harvard Crimson</a>, this vote came after a four-month-long debate about the university&rsquo;s proper role in combating climate change. Even though the motion is only advisory, English professor <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/jengell/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Engell</a> hopes that Harvard&rsquo;s financial managers will seriously consider the resolution.Following the vote, University President Lawrence Bacow agreed to forward the resolution to the HMC, but maintained that the university&rsquo;s endowment should not be used as a told to enact social change.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13752">[RELATED: UC system announces divestment from fossil fuels]</a>In a statement to Campus Reform, media relations at Harvard University echoed Bacow&rsquo;s remarks, saying &nbsp;&ldquo;As President Bacow said at Tuesday&rsquo;s Faculty Meeting, the vote by the faculty will be shared with the Harvard Corporation for consideration.&rdquo;Media relations at Harvard University also added, &ldquo;The commitments made in Harvard&rsquo;s <a href="https://green.harvard.edu/campaign/harvards-climate-action-plan" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Climate Action Plan</a> explicitly recognize what the science has made clear: the world must move quickly to end its use of fossil fuels. While we agree on the urgency of this global challenge, we respectfully disagree with divestment activists on the means by which a university should confront it.&rdquo;&nbsp;The Climate Action Plan is striving for Harvard to be fossil fuel neutral by 2026 and fossil-fuel-free by 2050.&nbsp;Government Professor <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/dtingley/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dustin Tingley</a> was one of the few members who voted against divestment and rather advocated for research. According to <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/2/5/faculty-vote-support-divestment/" style="text-decoration:none;">Tingley</a>, &ldquo;...I will vote no to divestment, but yes to investment in the research, teaching, and learning around climate change&hellip;&rdquo;.In contrast, Divest Harvard, a group calling for total divestment from the fossil fuel industry, worked with <a href="https://harvardfacultydivest.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Harvard Faculty Divest</a> to pass the divestment resolution. Divest Harvard is a coalition of students, alumni, and faculty fighting to &ldquo;disclose, divest, and reinvest&rdquo; for a &ldquo;just and stable future&rdquo;. Divest Harvard has many <a href="http://www.divestharvard.com/endorsements/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">endorsements</a>, including Harvard Professor of Practice and Public Policy, Cornel West.Following the vote, Divest Harvard took its victory to social media.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11983" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UIUC shrugs shoulders at fossil fuel divestment demand]</a>Video shared from the Fossil Fuels Divest Harvard Twitter account shows Harvard Philosophy Professor Edward Hall stating that the organization is &quot;very hopeful&quot; that the school will &quot;respond by agreeing to our motion.&quot;Divest Harvard compares their protest for divestment to the way that the &ldquo;...South African divestment campaign helped break the back of the Apartheid government and usher in an era of democracy and equality, our aim is to break the back of the fossil fuel industry and open up space for transformative action on climate change.&rdquo;In the meantime, Bacow asks that the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences have patience and allow the HMC time to reach a conclusion regarding their divestment motion.Divest Harvard did not respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment in time of publication.Follow the author on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/claynrobinson?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@ClayNRobinson</a>

All but 20 factulty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard are calling on the universitiy to completely divest from fossil fuels.

Harvard faculty vote to divest from fossil fuels

At an annual conference, student body presidents from each of the Big 10 schools unanimously agreed to a resolution calling on those institutions to divest from fossil fuels.&nbsp;According to the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x2nPudPmF9xXMHtobDb0tBLe9uPiqnODKez5b6KOjJc/edit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Climate Action Movement</a>, a student, faculty, and alumni group at the University of Michigan calling on the university to work toward carbon neutrality, the student government leaders agreed to the resolution on January 26.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13752" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UC system announces divestment from fossil fuels]</a>&quot;This Resolution marks the first instance in which students of a collegiate conference have collectively demanded fossil fuel divestment from their member institutions,&quot; the group noted, acknowledging that the Big 10 schools have a combined 520,000 currently-enrolled students and another 5.7 million alumni who are still alive.It noted similar actions by the University of California system, as well as Harvard and Yale students.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13840" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: STOP Columbus Day? Big Ten student gov demands &#39;Indigenous People&rsquo;s Day&#39;]</a>The University of Michigan student government led the effort in passing the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iOGLz53z_rz-UyaZ70oRP6Sphxwp-5zYr9ljGLYGYwc/edit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resolution</a>, in which the &quot;Big 10 Student Body Presidents collectively acknowledge the severity of climate change&quot; and &quot;will hereby advocate that their respective institutions commit to ceasing all further investments in the fossil fuel industry...in FY2020, &quot;and &quot;call on the leadership of their respective institutions to commit to research and action towards future divestment from the fossil fuel industry in FY2020.&quot;It&#39;s unclear whether any of the Big 10 schools will actually divest from fossil fuels.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14032" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: VIDEO: Harvard vs. Yale game DELAYED after climate protesters storm field]</a>UMich President Mark Schlissel, in a <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/section/news-briefs/csg-passes-resolution-demanding-%E2%80%98u%E2%80%99-divest-fossil-fuels" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> to the Michigan Daily, said, &ldquo;the fact that both CSG and then collectively the equivalent bodies all across the Big Ten made a statement about this, I think is important. I think we have to, you know, hear the student voice and you know, respect it and try to understand it.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Facebook:&nbsp;<a href="http://facebook.com/JonStreetDC" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@JonStreetDC</a>&nbsp;and Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/JonStreet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@JonStreet</a>

Student body presidents from the Big 10 schools unanimously approved a resolution calling on their institutions to divest from fossil fuels.

Big 10 schools pressured to ditch fossil fuels in name of climate change

College and high school students alike flooded the streets of Downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 1, marching alongside sixteen-year-old Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-climate-strike-ft-greta-thunberg-cayouthvsbigoil-tickets-78916099177" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">strike</a> against climate change outside Los Angeles City Hall.Los Angeles Unified School District, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, as well as a number of local L.A. private schools dismissed students early Friday morning to attend the event.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13751" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: VIDEO: &#39;Climate rebels&#39; &#39;shut down DC,&#39; urge against having children]</a>&ldquo;If a parent or guardian checks a student out of school to participate in the Youth Climate Strike Los Angeles, the absence will be considered excused due to the educational component,&rdquo; LAUSD released in a <a href="https://twitter.com/tonybarboza/status/1190070962965729281" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">statement</a>.LAUSD used school instructional hours to <a href="https://twitter.com/LASchools/status/1190375712349274112" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">live stream</a> the event to students in class.Instead of utilizing the expansive network of bike lanes the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica installed costing approximately <a href="http://santamonicacityca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?Frame=&MeetingID=1146&MediaPosition=&ID=3070&CssClass=" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">$5 million</a> in taxpayer dollars just for upgrades to existing bike lanes, the majority of attendees skipped school and arrived in cars.Campus Reform California Campus Correspondent Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin attended the protest to ask students there whether they would support a law that would make fossil fuels illegal.&nbsp;Most of the students Moriarty-McLaughlin spoke with said they would. &nbsp;WATCH:<center><iframe width="950" height="666" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGsncbvmPY4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></center>&quot;Obviously, fossil fuels are damaging our environment and it&#39;s such a big issue, like, I want it gone,&quot; one student said.&nbsp;&quot;Absolutely, we&#39;ve got to get money out of politics,&quot; another responded.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13742" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Students NATIONWIDE ditch class for &#39;Climate Strike&#39;]</a>Yet another student agreed that fossil fuels should be illegal but at the same time said &quot;we need to have an actual way to phase them out.&quot;&nbsp;One student who supported outlawing fossil fuels acknowledged the inherent challenges in doing so.&nbsp;&quot;Show me how that&#39;s actually possible in a system where every major production chain involves fossil fuels from the top to the bottom,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;The problem is the system of capitalism,&quot; he later added. &quot;It&#39;s capitalism and imperialism and fundamentally we need a revolution in order to actually stop the destruction of the planet.&quot;Would the same students advocating to outlaw fossil fuels be willing to give up their cars, though? What about their cell phones?Watch the video above to find out.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/factswithfiona" style="text-decoration:none;">@factswithfiona</a>

VIDEO: Students call to OUTLAW fossil fuels...but would they give up their own cars?

Students at Binghamton University in New York held a <a href="https://www.bupipedream.com/news/111497/die-in-protest-calls-for-greater-transparency-of-bu-funds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">die-in</a> to protest the alleged lack of transparency in the school&rsquo;s fundraising foundation, the <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu" style="text-decoration:none;">Binghamton University Foundation</a>, which one group suspects is investing in fossil fuels, which it says &quot;literally kills people.&quot;Die-ins are a type of protest where participants lie on the ground as if dead, typically to bring attention to a cause that is leading to death.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13752" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UC system announces divestment from fossil fuels]</a>The protest was hosted by a group called DIVEST BING. One of its members, Elizabeth Nutig, told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bupipedream.com/news/111497/die-in-protest-calls-for-greater-transparency-of-bu-funds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Pipe Dream</a>, the campus paper, that in addition to calling for more transparency in the school&rsquo;s endowment investments, DIVEST BING is also protesting investments into &ldquo;stuff that literally kills people.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/13932/1572367672841.jpg">Image credit: Pipe Dream&nbsp; &ldquo;We&rsquo;re protesting against the lack of transparency with the endowment of this school,&rdquo; Nutig said. &ldquo;The Binghamton University Foundation refuses to tell us where our money is going, and historically money that universities and other big organizations or corporations invest in is fossil fuels, war machines and prison labor, which is stuff that literally kills people.&rdquo;&nbsp;Other students said they hoped the protest would <a href="https://www.bupipedream.com/news/111497/die-in-protest-calls-for-greater-transparency-of-bu-funds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">raise awareness</a> of the issue.&nbsp;The protest also included gravestone props to represent the deaths of environmental activists.&nbsp;According to the BU Foundation <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/foundation/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">website</a>, the organization is a non-profit that &ldquo;manages and invests gifts donors make&rdquo; to BU.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11983" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UIUC shrugs shoulders at fossil fuel divestment demand]</a>Sheila Doyle, Executive Director of the BU Foundation, <a href="https://www.bupipedream.com/news/111497/die-in-protest-calls-for-greater-transparency-of-bu-funds/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">disputed</a> the lack of transparency claims leveled by DIVEST BING.&nbsp;&ldquo;I met with this group and discussed how the Binghamton University Foundation distributes nearly $14 million back to campus every year based on the donor&rsquo;s intentions,&rdquo; Doyle told the Pipe Dream. &ldquo;I listened to their concerns and informed them I would pass them on to our Foundation Board. The Foundation and its affiliates are audited annually by an independent public accountant and in support of our commitment to transparency, we have IRS Form 990 and annual financial statements available to the public online.&rdquo;Campus Reform perused online publicly available financial documents and found that they list investment categories for the Binghamton University Foundation, but did not find any specific investments listed.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/eduneret" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@eduneret</a>

The executive director of the Binghamton University Foundation challenged the students’ claims, saying the foundation’s annual financial statements are available to the public online.

Students hold 'die-in' to protest fossil fuels -- 'stuff that literally kills people'

The University of California system has announced its intention to completely divest from fossil fuels.&nbsp;Officials in charge of investments insist that their decision to move toward more &ldquo;sustainable&rdquo; and environmentally conscious investments is simply in the practical interest of beneficiaries, rather than a product of political opinion.&nbsp;In an opinion piece in the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-16/divestment-fossil-fuel-university-of-california-climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>, UC chief investment officer and treasurer Jagdeep Singh Bachher and chairman of the UC Board of Regents&rsquo; Investments Committee Richard Sherman reasoned that &ldquo;hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we will have made our $13.4-billion endowment &ldquo;fossil-free&rdquo; as of the end of this month, and why our $70-billion pension will soon be that way as well,&rdquo; the officials explained in the September 17 op-ed.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12145" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Former Obama official lends a hand to anti-fossil fuel students]</a>Sherman and Bachher deny that their decision was &ldquo;born of political pressure,&rdquo; or that it is a result of &ldquo;green movement idealism.&rdquo; Instead, they insist that it is based on a &ldquo;sustainable investing&rdquo; approach.&nbsp;&ldquo;Today, we are on track to beat our own five-year goal of investing at least $1 billion in climate change solutions and, by incorporating environmental, social and governance factors &mdash; ESG factors &mdash; into our investment decision-making, we&rsquo;ve become better stewards of university funds,&rdquo; the officials explained.Sherman and Bachher boast that they drove UC to become the first U.S. public university to sign onto the <a href="https://www.unpri.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">U.N&rsquo;s Principles for Responsible Investing</a>, a commitment by institutional investors to act in the &quot;long-term interests&rdquo; of their beneficiaries by incorporating &ldquo;environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors&rdquo; into investment decisions.&nbsp;The commitment consists of six principles to guide investment decisions including to &ldquo;incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis&rdquo; to &ldquo;seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest,&rdquo; and to &ldquo;promote acceptance and implementation&rdquo; of the listed principles.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11983" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UIUC shrugs shoulders at fossil fuel divestment demand]</a>The investors emphasize that they are not driven by political reasonings, but that they are led to the same decision that they might be if that were the case. Regardless of political motivations, they say that they sold $150 million in fossil fuel assets because they &ldquo;posed a long-term risk.&rdquo;&ldquo;While our rationale may not be the moral imperative that many activists embrace, our investment decision-making process leads us to the same result. We&rsquo;re in the business of helping to ensure the financial viability of a great university whose stakeholders frequently come at an issue &mdash; even one as terrifyingly consequential as climate change &mdash; from different perspectives,&rdquo; the pair wrote.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/celinedryan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@celinedryan</a>

UC chief investment officer and the chairman of the Board of Regents’ Investments Committee penned an op-ed for the LA Times insisting that their decisions were purely financially motivated.

UC system announces divestment from fossil fuels

A feminist professor at Virginia Tech University is warning that fossil fuels are contributing to a warped sense of &ldquo;masculine identity&rdquo; and &ldquo;authoritarianism&rdquo; among men.&nbsp;Cara Daggett, who teaches classes on politics and global security at Virginia Tech, penned her criticism of petro-masculinity in an essay &ldquo;<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305829818775817?journalCode=mila" style="text-decoration:none;">Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire</a>&rdquo; for the most recent issue of&nbsp;<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/home/mil" style="text-decoration:none;">Millennium: Journal of International Studies</a>.Writing in response to the 2016 election, Daggett coins the term &ldquo;petro-masculinity&rdquo; to describe what she sees as a convergence of &ldquo;climate change, a threatened fossil fuel system, and an increasingly fragile Western hypermasculinity.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10408" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UCLA fining itself for air travel to fight global warming]</a>&ldquo;Petro-masculinity, like fossil fuel systems, arguably has global dimensions,&rdquo; Daggett asserts. &ldquo;However, like other masculinities, petro-masculinity should be understood as manifesting in multiple, and locally specific, ways.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Petro-masculinity approaches masculinity as a socially constructed identity that emerges &lsquo;within a gender order that defines masculinity in opposition to femininity, and in so doing, sustains a power relation between men and women as groups,&rsquo;&rdquo; she adds, quoting other academic literature on the topic.Unlike the &ldquo;hegemonic masculinity&rdquo; of the past&mdash;which is a general term to describe masculinity under patriarchy&mdash;Daggett claims that petro-masculinity is a recent phenomenon, specifically triggered by global warming.&nbsp;Petro-masculinity, she claims, ultimately aims &ldquo;to defend the endangered status quo, entrenching the petrocultures that have historically propped up Anglo-European fossil-burning men.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;In this context, burning fossil fuels can come to function as a knowingly violent experience, a reassertion of white masculine power on an unruly planet that is perceived to be increasingly in need of violent, authoritarian order,&rdquo; Daggett argues.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10249" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: CU-Boulder teaches students about &#39;eco-social justice&#39;]</a>According to the professor, men&rsquo;s desire to burn fossil fuels can also explain the concept of misogyny.&ldquo;Fossil-fuelled life has always been violent,&rdquo; she says, later adding that &ldquo;fossil violence&rdquo; should &ldquo;also be appreciated as a misogynist tactic, if we follow Kate Manne to think of misogyny not as an individual belief&mdash;the hatred of women&mdash;but instead as a set of practices.&rdquo;&nbsp;Prior to her essay on petro-masculinity, Daggett&rsquo;s most notable publication was a 2015 article titled, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616742.2015.1075317" style="text-decoration:none;">Drone Disorientations: How &lsquo;Unmanned&rsquo; Weapons Queer the Experience of Killing in War</a>.&rdquo;The academic declined an interview with&nbsp;Campus Reform.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Toni_Airaksinen" style="text-decoration:none;">@Toni_Airaksinen</a>

STUDY: Fossil fuels contribute to ‘petro-masculinity’ 

Georgetown University recently passed a policy in favor of divesting from companies involved in &ldquo;abortion services,&rdquo; though the new provision could have a far greater impact on the school&rsquo;s investments.
According to a university <a href="https://www.georgetown.edu/new-socially-responsible-investing-policy-2017">press release</a>, the Washington, D.C. school&rsquo;s Board of Directors voted to uphold <a href="https://investments.georgetown.edu/socially-responsible-investing">a &ldquo;Socially Responsible Investing&rdquo; (SRI) policy</a> in order to ensure that its endowment would not &ldquo;be used as a tool to promote a political agenda.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=7712">[RELATED: NYU rejects fossil fuel divestment as meaningless political statement]</a>
&ldquo;This SRI Policy is an important step forward for Georgetown,&rdquo; Paul Tagliabue, the board&rsquo;s vice chair and leader of its working group on socially responsible investments, remarked in the press release. &ldquo;Recognizing that the university&rsquo;s endowment is not to be used for advocating political interests, we are committed to both meeting our fiduciary responsibilities and generating resources to advance the university&rsquo;s academic mission in a manner consistent with our identity as a Catholic and Jesuit institution.&rdquo;
Specifically, the new policy will require the university to &ldquo;avoid investments in companies that are substantially involved in the provision of abortion services,&rdquo; but its broad wording could also result in divestment from companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels, or even those that do business with Israel.
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8886">[RELATED: Barnard College to divest from &lsquo;climate deniers&rsquo;]</a>
In fact, the press release makes clear that &ldquo;the working group met with representatives of the student-run group GU Fossil Free,&rdquo; an organization that supports full divestment from oil and gas companies, when creating its new policy.
Moreover, in the very same section of the SRI policy that discusses divestment from abortion service providers, the school discusses criteria for further divestments that align closely with the claims advanced by advocates of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
<a href="../?ID=8936">[RELATED: REPORT: BDS among &lsquo;greatest threats to academic freedom&rsquo; today]</a>
Under the section titled &ldquo;Do No Harm,&rdquo; the university is instructed to avoid investments in companies violating &ldquo;human dignity,&rdquo; including ones &ldquo;that are directly and significantly involved in the production of weapons that are intended to be used for indiscriminate destruction and companies that are engaged in activities having an extremely deleterious effect on the environment.&rdquo;
Larry Huang, incoming chairman of the Georgetown College Democrats, told Campus Reform that his organization supports the university&rsquo;s &ldquo;leadership in environmentally-friendly policies,&rdquo; arguing that &ldquo;divesting from fossil fuels is scientifically the best decision for the environment, which is why it's a policy that can be separate from politics,&rdquo; though he expressed disappointment with other aspects of the policy.
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9212">[RELATED: Alumni pledge to hold donations hostage to divestment]</a>
&ldquo;We are deeply disappointed that they seem to equate abortion with environmental harm and weapons manufacturing,&rdquo; he commented.
Campus Reform reached out to the university for comment on the matter, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/kara_kirsten">@kara_kirsten</a>
CORRECTION:&nbsp;An earlier version of this article mistakenly attributed support for divestment from Israel to GU Fossil Free, which advocates for divestment from oil and gas companies. Divestment from companies that do business with Israel is promoted by a different student group, GU F.R.E.E.

Georgetown opens door to divesting from Israel, fossil fuels

Stanford students <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Students-And-Alumni-Pledge-To-Withhold-Donations-8079241.php" >protested</a> their university&rsquo;s investment in the fossil fuel and oil industry on Friday during its annual senior gift announcement with university advancement officers by hanging banners and pledging to withhold their donations until Stanford divests.
Fossil Free Stanford, the political advocacy group that spearheaded the petition that has garnered the signatures of over 1,000 students and alumni, has the Stanford Class of 2016&rsquo;s pledge published on its <a href="http://www.fossilfreestanford.org/withhold-donations.html" >website</a> where it invites current students and alumni to sign the pledge to withhold their senior gift until Stanford pulls all of its $22.2 billion endowment out of the oil and gas industries.
According to Stanford&rsquo;s website, The Senior Gift Campaign is a fundraising effort for The Stanford Fund, which &ldquo;supports scholarships, academic programs, and student-led organizations that make Stanford unique&rdquo;.
In 2014-2015, Stanford collected <a href="http://giving.stanford.edu/the-stanford-fund/overview/annual-report" >$26 </a>million in donations, distributing 68 percent to need-based financial aid and 21 percent to academic programs such as its Diversity and First-Gen Office, which helps first generation and low-income students; the Office for Military-Affiliated Communities; and the Leland Scholars Program, which provides a rigorous pre-orientation to freshman who did not have access to advanced STEM courses in high school.
The remaining eleven percent funds student groups.
Also on Fossil Free Stanford&rsquo;s website is a list of <a href="http://www.fossilfreestanford.org/why-did-we-act.html" >demands</a>, where they demand Stanford freeze new investments in the top 100 oil and gas companies and divest within five years from direct ownership in those companies. The exception, they claim, can be made if these 100 companies publicly commit to only burning 20 percent or less of their reserves, stop seeking new fossil fuel reserves, and stop actively lobbying against national legislation and international agreements that would limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Fossil Free Stanford staged a weeklong sit-in in November, where members held hands and formed a circle around Building 10, which houses the offices of the president and provost. Members read letters, wore &ldquo;Fossil Free&rdquo; shirt, and joined in song, The Stanford Daily <a href="http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/11/16/fossil-free-stanford-stages-sit-in-rally-at-presidents-office/" >reported</a>.
The group had subsequently submitted a Request for Review to the University&rsquo;s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility (APIRL), which prompted the Board of Trustees&rsquo; Special Committee on Investment Responsibility (SCIR) to release their decision to not divest on April 25. In the Board of Trustees&rsquo; public statement, the board emphasized the requirements for divestment, including the company or industry&rsquo;s social injury outweighing the social benefits. According to the Board, APIRL could &ldquo;not evaluate whether the social injury caused by the fossil fuel industry outweighs the social benefit it provides&rdquo;.
In response to the decision, the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), which acts as Stanford&rsquo;s governing student body, penned an <a href="http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/05/10/assu-execs-call-for-board-to-represent-student-consensus-on-fossil-fuel-divestment/" >Op-Ed</a> published in The Stanford Daily that denounced the decision.
&ldquo;We have a duty to respond to the scientific evidence for climate change and its impacts, and act in accordance with what our conscience has known all along. We have never been, nor will we ever be, protected from the blows to our institution&rsquo;s moral character,&rdquo; ASSU said.
According to Fossil Free Stanford, more than 379 Stanford faculty have co-signed a letter calling on the administration to divest, and the ASSU and Graduate Student Council have <a href="http://www.fossilfreestanford.org/student-government-resolutions.html" > passed resolutions</a> in support of fossil fuel divestment.
According to The Stanford Daily, on February 16th, three professors arguing for divestment met with President John Hennessy. Elizabeth Tallent, a professor of English and the lead author of a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2015/jan/11/stanford-fossil-fuel-divestment-letter" > letter</a>&nbsp;advocating for divestment, argued that the moral and ethical responsibilities of the university impelled fossil fuel divestment in order to avert an existential threat to future generations.
Fossil Free Stanford claims that their &ldquo;movement is not going away&rdquo; and <a href="http://www.fossilfreestanford.org/students.html" >encourages</a>&nbsp;students and faculty to attend their meetings, go to working group meetings and talk to others about the campaign.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/marl_boro26" >@marl_boro26</a>

Students, faculty pledge to halt donations until Stanford divests from fossil fuels

The Student Assembly of the State University of New York (SUNY SA) system has recently <a href="http://sunysa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Divestment-Resolution.pdf" >passed a resolution</a> urging the system to follow the lead of California and divest in the use of fossil fuels and withdraw any and all future investments.
The resolution goes as far as to ask the university system to remove itself from investment in even corporate bonds which may be linked to companies who produce fossil fuels. The resolution states:
&ldquo;[The resolution] calls upon SUNY and its universities to freeze new investments in fossil-fuel companies immediately and to divest completely from any direct ownership in these companies or in funds that include fossil-fuel equities and corporate bonds, and instead invest in alternative energies and technologies.&rdquo;
The resolution comes on the heels of what the SUNY SA claims is a boom in solar technology and investment in renewable energy sources. In particular, the resolution itself cites &ldquo;extreme weather&rdquo; and claims &ldquo;science indicates that while not explicitly caused by fossil fuels, climate change has been greatly accelerated by the use of fossil fuels.&rdquo;
While mentioning several statistics of the economic impact which renewable energy may have, the resolution does not detail the impact which the divestment from fossil fuels in total could potentially have on the state of New York or the country as a whole.
According to <a href="http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/news-and-updates/speeches/creating-jobs-and-fueling-economy">Exxon Mobil</a>, the United States relies heavily on the jobs, economic growth, and energy created by these companies. Divestment from even companies linked to the product of fossil fuels could hinder this growth, according to Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Andrew Swiger.
&ldquo;What we celebrate today is a reminder of what America&rsquo;s energy industry can do and is doing &mdash; investing in our country,&rdquo; Swiger stated. &ldquo;We believe that expanding supplies of affordable, reliable energy is one of the best ways to get our economy moving again.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to the SUNY SA for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publishing.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/yalconner" >@YALConner</a>

SUNY Student Assembly wants New York system to divest from fossil fuels

<a href="http://gofossilfree.org/about-fossil-free/" >Fossil Free</a>, a global network of &ldquo;campaigns and campaigners&rdquo; aimed at economically hindering companies that profit from fossil fuels, has recently busied itself with lobbying the Pope to join its cause.
The group has now extended its <a href="http://gofossilfree.org/" >influence</a> to 400 institutions worldwide. Its newest effort, which has unified a group of students from 82 colleges and universities in the U.S., urges the Vatican to divest from fossil fuels.
On June 18, Pope Francis <a href="https://twitter.com/pontifex/status/611518771186929664" >tweeted</a>, &ldquo;[t]he earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.&rdquo; In a <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/611730132571590656" >tweet</a> the next day he wrote that, &ldquo;[r]educing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility.&rdquo; He also released an <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html" >encyclical</a> which read, &ldquo;[w]e know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels&hellip; needs to be progressively replaced without delay.&rdquo;
In response to the Pope&rsquo;s statements, Fossil Free UCLA and other Fossil Free campus groups across the U.S. took to urging the Pope to divest the Vatican from all institutions and organizations that employ and/or take benefit from the usage of fossil fuels.
In a <a href="http://gofossilfree.org/young-people-of-faith-at-82-colleges-and-universities-call-on-pope-francis-to-divest-the-vatican/" >letter</a> to Pope Francis, Fossil Free students boasted of their accomplishments on their college campuses and asked him to join their cause.
&ldquo;We are standing on the precipice of climate catastrophe,&rdquo; the letter reads. &ldquo;[W]e have been inspired by your call for climate justice and the awakening of the Catholic and global community to the systemic causes of the climate crisis.&rdquo;
The letter also includes a call to action for Pope Francis to divest the Vatican from fossil fuels and a request for him to publicly call on universities to do the same during his visit to the U.S.
&ldquo;Additionally, we ask that you continue efforts to divest your own &lsquo;campus,&rsquo; as The Vatican has an equal responsibility as our universities and institutions to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry,&rdquo; the group wrote. &ldquo;We are doing all that we can, but we need your help so that together we can take part in the &ldquo;globalization of hope.&rdquo;
The Fossil Free movement at UCLA has gained considerable traction in recent years. During the Fall 2014 quarter, Fossil Free UCLA <a href="http://www.sjpbruins.com/endorsements.html" >endorsed and co-sponsored</a> an initiative to divest from a number of countries, <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/09/uc-students-vote-to-divest-from-america/" >including Israel and America.</a>
While the group continues to push divestment initiatives, many students and alumni at the University of California Los Angeles aren&rsquo;t on board with these ideas.
&ldquo;I think that is really hypocritical that a left leaning group is calling on the Pope to divest from Fossil Fuels instead of investing more in this great technology,&rdquo; Deepak Sahni, UCLA alumna and California Freedom Project correspondent, told Campus Reform.
Sahni explained that divesting from fossil energy will be counterproductive in fighting income inequality, polarizing society between the upper and lower classes.
&ldquo;The pope made time in his US trip to talk to criminals about rehabilitation and re-assimilating in society,&rdquo; Sahni continued. &ldquo;These individuals will go into the underground economy that is filled with a life of violence and child soldiers.&rdquo;
Current UCLA students have also expressed their dismay with Fossil Free UCLA&rsquo;s manipulation of global affairs. Jake Kohlhepp, a fourth-year economics student and president of the Bruin Republicans at UCLA, told Campus Reform that "efforts to encourage the pope to divest from fossil fuels are morally misinformed.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Climate change is an issue humanity needs to deal with, but it is not the only factor that is important&hellip; If the pope cares about the poor, he will stay away from divestment, and instead encourage common sense regulation of pollution.&rdquo;
Fossil Free UCLA did not respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/PardesSeleh" >@PardesSeleh</a>

In a letter to Pope Francis, Fossil Free students from 82 U.S. schools boasted of their accomplishments on their college campuses and asked him to divest the Vatican from fossil fuels.